Meaning of the Fivefold Spiritual Renaissance

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Actually, the methods of Fivefold Spiritual Renaissance are not new. They have been around even during the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. When the Buddha manifested in the world to preach Dharma, his primary audience were human beings.

His aim was ti imbed te Darma widely in people's lives, allowing them to awaken from ignorance and thus resolve their predicaments and uncover the original radiance of the mind ground-to-innate wisdom or powers of the mind.

By applying the Dharma in their lives, people could moderate and subdue their afflictions and habits and ceaselessly build within their mind a clear and cool pure land.

Spiritual refers to the mind and ideas. The Buddhadharma is a teaching of the mind. The mind itself is a kind of wisdom. In part of this wisdom is innate; in part, acquired. Put another way, the preconditions are innate and to them nurturing and development are added.

If people have difficulty accepting nurturing and development, it is because they are unwilling to change.

People's views are formed slowly beginning when they are very young. In their childhood years, people gradually establish their own ways of thinking about the world but these ways of thinking are not yet mature.

After reaching adulthood, they gradually form mature views, which become individual opinions and ideas. The views that a person already has are not unchangeable. This is particularly true when a person has encountered some suffering, dilemma, or disaster that they cannot resolve.

In such a situation, if someone tells him about idea that helps him to solve his problem, he may change his previous views and accept the new idea. Counseling from psychologist, guidance from religious teachers and spiritual conversation with family or friends can all have its function of helping people to find methods of adapting to their environment and interacting harmoniously with others.

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